Breaker for elongated materia



having a pin portion 50 extending partly into the bore 45 to act as astop for the shoulders formed on the shaft 46 by the reduced portion 48thereof and thereby limit the movement .of the shaft 46 in eitherdirection, longitudinally of the projector. The forward end of the shaft46 extends through the bore in the ear 44 and this portion of the shaft46 is provided with a longitudinal bore 51 and a transverse bore 52. Inthe bore 51 there is disposed a stub shaft 53 held therein by screw 54(Fig. 7), and having on its inner end a tooth 55. This tooth is adaptedto engage with a spiral groove 56 in a transverse shaft 57 extendingthrough bore 52 and journalled at 58 and 59 in the ear 44. The outer endof this shaft 57 is provided with a thumb element 60 and an indicatordial or disk 61 on which suitable indications such as 62 may be disposedas desired. A spring 63 is disposed beneath the dial 61 and the bottomof a recess 64 in the ear 44 in which it is disposed. Another bore 65(Fig. 2) in the ear 44 holds a spring 66 which presses a ball 67 intoone or another of several notches or indentations 68 on the under sideof the dial 61.

Disposed and housedwithin the rear face of the turret element 15 arethree auxiliary tubes such as 69, '10 and 71, Figs. 4 and 5, the axes ofwhich are in alignment with the axes of the lens tubes 25, 26 and 27 inthe front of the turret element 15. These tubes 69, 70 and 71 aremounted on and carried by a spider frame such as 72, (see Fig. 6)mounted on a central rod 73 slidably joumalled in a sleeve 74 mountedcentrally of the turret element 15 and extending from the rear facethereof. Between the rear face of the turret element 15 and the rearface of the spider member 72 there is disposed a spring 75 around therod 73 and the sleeve 74. The rod 73 and with it the spider 72 carryingthe tubes 69, 70 and 71 may be slid in and out of the turret element 15and the spring 75 will always tend to keep the tubes in the positionoutwardly shown in Fig. 6. This position is the one in which these tubeson their outer faces will bear against the adjacent face of a filmaperture gate, not shown. Between each pair of the tubes 69, 70 and 71there is disposed on the spider element 72 a shallow depression 76 inwhich is disposed a triangular plate such as 77, (see Fig. 3) heldtherein by a screw 78. This plate in each instance has at its bottom acut 79 therein.

Back of the plate 77 adjacent the cut 79. there is rotatably mounted byscrew 80 a plate 81 which carries certain indicia such as 82. It will benoted that the indicia 82 are disposed at the rear of the turret inassociation with the auxiliary tubes, each indicia being disposedadjacent the lenses to which its color and character are limited so thatas the lens is aligned with the optical axis, near the center of themachine, its corresponding indicia is disposed opposite it near the topof the machine so thatit is readily observable by the operator eitherthrough the glass of the door or when the-door is open. v

Operation. of the device Having now described the' parts and theiralignment with the desired optical axis. When a new lens is to bealigned, the turret is turned until the desired lens is in positionand-when it is so the balls will click into position, and the operatorcan tell by the slight resistance thus offeredthat the proper positionhas been reached.

The lenses properly located in their holding sleeves are introduced intothe holding tubes and are fastened therein by tightening of the screws28.

To focus the lenses.-Referring particularly to Fig. 4, the turning ofthe thumb piece 39 will turn the shaft 3'7. This being threaded in thefixed plug 35 will cause the shaft 37 to move to the right or the leftin accordance -with the turning movement thereof and will advance orwithdraw the lens tube which is connected to that particular shaft 37since the lens tube ear such as 29 is screwed to the sleeve 3 0. Thissleeve 30 is forced to the right by means of pinor key 43 and to theleft by means of plug 38. As the lenstubes are thus focused their stoplimits'are also determined by the pin 50 engaging with the shoulders onthe stub shaft 46 at the bottom of the turret 15. This is true becauseastheear 44 on each lens tube moves to the right or the left it carrieswith it the transverse shaft 57' and the stub shaft 46 which slides inthe bore 45 of the turret element 15. It will be understood that eachlens tube can be thus separately focused. The construction abovedescribed with regard to one lens and its holder and operation appliesto each and all of them both as to the focusing and as to the lateralshifting of the tubes for the alignment of the same tube with one ormore of several different projection axes.

To shift the lenses lateralZy.-Referring to Figs. 4 and 7 particularly,the rotation of the thumb piece 60 will rotate the shaft 57 and by theengagement of the tooth in the spiral groove 56 will laterally shift theear 44 and thus will likewise shift the lens tube in question in thedesired direction and this partial rotation will take place around theaxis of the bore 32 of turret member 15 since the lens tube carrying thecar 44 is mounted on the sleeve 30 which is slidably and rotatablymounted in said bore. The dotted center lines shown in Fig. 8-indicatethe amount of swing given to the lens mounts upon the axis of. sleeve 30to align the lenses with the various optical axes as above mentioned,which correspond to the optical axis of the regular film, the Movietoneregular film and .Movietone Grandeur film. Y

The operation of focusing the lenses will not affect the operation ofthe shift device since the stub shaft 46 as described can movelongitudinally to the limits of the stop pin 50 in either direction. Theindicia 62 will tell which axis the tube is in alignment with. v

To operate the film aperture gate.-When the film has to be threaded ortaken out ofthe machine for one reason or the other, it is necessary topull back the gate from the aperture plate and when this takes place thelight tubes such as 69, 70 and 71 must be moved back with the gateagainst which they normally are in contact. This is effected by reasonof the fact that the tubes or Grandeur film is employed. The indicia RMarch 5, 1935. B. G. KLUGVH 3,

BREAKER FOR ELONGATED MATERIAL Filed Sept. 2, 1951 INVENTOR ATTORN 5Patented Mar. 5, 1935 1,993,102 BREAKER 'FOR ELONGA'I'ED MATERIAr.

Bethune G. Klugh, Birmingham, Ala., assignor to Swann FertilizerCompany, a corporation of Delaware Application September 2, 1931, SerialNo. 560,783

10 Claims.

My invention relates to apparatus for breaking elongated fragile bodiesinto particles of uniform size and has for its principal object theprovision of apparatus of the character designated which shall be simpleof design, economical of manufacture and which shall operate with theproduction of a minimum of fines or irregular sized particles.

A further object ofuny invention is to provide breaking apparatus whichshall be particularly adapted for breaking elongated fragile bodies andwhich shall be effective to break such bodies into uniform lengthparticles, with a minimum of waste and capacity.

In mycope'nding application, Serial No. 558,669, filed August" 22, 1931,and relating to a process for producing concentrated fertilizer, thereis described and claimed a process in which concentrated plant nutrientsalts such as monoammonium phosphate, diammonium phosphate and potashsalts are first formed into a dough-like paste and extruded in the form'of relatively long cylindrical bodies. These bodies are dried andbroken into particles of uniform length suitable for handling inordinary farm drilling machinery.

The apparatus disclosed and claimed'in this present application isparticularly adapted for breaking the dried cylindrical bodies ofconcentrated fertilizer as described in my before mentioned applicationand will be described with relation thereto, though it will be apparentto those skilled in the art that it may be employed for uniform breakingof many fragile materials other than concentrated fertilizer saltmixtures.

In the breaking of extruded bodies of salt mixtures into uniformparticles there are certain diiliculties to be overcome which resistbreaking apparatus as heretofore known to me. The elongated extrudedbodies are of substantially uniform diameter but of varying lengths.They are of a substantially uniform compression resistant strengththroughout the individual sections and have no distinctve planes ofrelative weakness.

Hence any crushing action, such as rolls or hammer mills tend to breakthe bodies into heterogeneous shapes and sizes responsive to thehaphazard directional compressive and impact action that is therebyexerted on them.

With apparatus made in accordance with my invention the bodies arebroken in planes at right angles to the longitudinal axis thereof and inuniform lengths. This is accomplished by a pair of cutter rolls providedrespectively with longitudinal and transverse grooves on the respectivewhich shall have a relatively large.

(ores-s) faces thereof. By proper positioning and adjustment of theserolls and by control of the direction of rotation and relative angularspeeds thereof (to be more particularly described later), I am enabledto control the direction and magnitude 5 of rupturing force and thedepth of cut on each body so that it is cut into uniform length sectionsor particles. I am furthermore enabled to so control the feed to thesaid rolls whereby the passing of superimposed extruded bodies between10 the rolls is prevented.

Apparatus embodying features of my invention, is illustrated in theaccompanying drawing for'ming a part of this application, in which:-

Fig. 1 is a sectional elevation of apparatus em- 15 bodying features ofmy invention;

Fig. 2 is an end view, drawn to a larger scale than Fig. 1, of thecutter rolls in operation; and

Fig. 3 is asectional view taken along the line III-HI of Fig. 2.Referring to the drawing for a better understanding of my invention, Ishow a lower cutter roll 10 and an upper cutter roll 11. The lowercutter roll 10 has a shaft 12 mounted in bearings 13 and the uppercutter roll 11 has a shaft 14 mounted in bearings 16. The bearings 16are made adjustable by means of adjusting screws 17 whereby therotational axes of the two rolls may be maintained in true parallelism.The lower roll 10 may be driven through a pulley 18 30 from any suitablesource of power. The upper roll 11 is driven from the shaft 12 through areduction gear train embodying gears 21, 22 and 23, so that the upperroll 11 rotates at a greater speed than the lower roll 10. Preferablythe 35 upper roll has a speed ten times that of the lower roll.

The lower roll 10 is provided on its periphery with longitudinal grooves27 separated by relatively sharp ridges 28. The upperroll 11 is providedwith similar grooves 31 extending transversely around the periphery ofthe roll and separated by relatively sharp ridges 32.

The grooves in the upper roll 11 are kept clean of fine material bymeans of a rotary brush 33 45 driven from the shaft'l4 through gears 24and 26. Mounted to the rear of the lower roll 10 on a suitable frame 34is a motor 36 which drivesarotary brush 37 for cleaning the lower roll10.

The motor 36 is mounted upon the frame 34 50 so as to reciprocatethereon. This is brought about by attachingthe motor frame to a plate 38having adepending stirrup member 39. The stirrup member 39 is providedwith a slot 41 adapted to cooperate with a pin 42 carried by a belt 43.F

The belt 43 rides onpulleys 44 and 46, the latter being driven from theshaft 12 by means of beveled gears 47, shaft 48 and gears 49. By themeans just described the motor 36 with its brush 37 is caused toreciprocate along the lower cutter roll 10 and keep'the grooves 27clean.

The grooves 27 have a depth and contour which are related definitely tothe size of the material to be broken. For example, with material suchas extruded salts, having a diameter of 5/64 of an inch, the grooves aremade 3/64 inch in depth, with a cross sectional radius of 7/ 128 inch.This provides a trough in which the elongated extruded bodies of 5/64inch diameter may freely rest.

The grooves 31 in the upper breaker roll are preferably made of the samecross sectional dimensions and shape and with the same interveningcutting edges as those of the lower cutter roll 10 but, as seen from thedrawing, are at right angles to the grooves 27. l

The two rolls are adjusted-to accurate parallelism with a distance ofapproximately 1/64 inch between the cooperating surfaces when breakingmaterial of 5/ 64 inch diameter. the rolls of course would vary somewhatwith the size material being treated and the spacing given is understoodto be only for that particular size and kind of material. With suchspacing and with material of 5/64 inch diameter, it will be evident thata given piece of material such as 51 lying in one of the grooves 2'7will project above the grooves 2/64 of an inch and be subject to a cutfrom the cutting edge of the cooperating roll of 1/64 of an inch. Thisrelative depth of cut into the section to'be broken is .very importantin the production of uniform lengths and avoidance of breaking thesections into irregularCshapes. In this example, which corresponds toactual practice, the cut into the section by the cutting edge is thediameter. The sections being relatively brittle, are ruptured in a planeat right angles to their axes, with about this relative cutting depth.If the depth of cut into the section is relatively greater, (forinstance the section), the tapered bases of the cutting edges will exertan added longitudinalpressure component upon the sections, from theupper half of the ends of the portion so cut, as to cause a longitudinalsplitting of the said sections thus producing irregular shapes anddefeating the object of theinvention.

The contour of the groove is likewise important in producing regularuniform lengths with preservation of cylindrical sections. The radius ofthis groove, slightly greater than that of the section to be cut,provides a trough giving the said section a full surface bearing so thatthe cutting force from the opposite side is effectively resisted, anddirected at right angles to the axis. Furthermore, the trough beingwider than the sections, permits the sections a slight rolling movementtoward adjacent ridges upon contact with the cooperating cutting ridge.

The uniform spacing of the grooves and cut ting edges insures that thematerial will be cut in uniform lengths corresponding to the spacing ofthe cutting edges of the roll opposite the groove in which the materialis lying. This is illustrated in Fig. 3 where a piece of material 52lying in a groove 27 is shown as being cut by the cutting edges 32.

. The upper roll 11 is preferably mounted to the rear of a verticalplane passing through the axis of roll 10. I have found that the bestresults are obtained byso mounting the two rolls that a plane joiningthe axes of the two rolls makes an angle This spacing of ofapproximately 45 degrees with a vertical plane passing through the axisof the lower roll 10. With this arrangement, the material may be fedonto the uppersurface of the roll 10 asby means of a chute 53. I

In operation the two rolls are rotated in the same direction, the lowerroll running at around 10 R. P. M. and the upper roll at a speed ofsubstantially ten times that of the lower roll or around 120 R. P. M.The direction of rotation of the lowerroll 10 therefore is such as tocarry the material to be broken between the'rolls. Inasmuch as the upperroll 11 rotates in the same dis rection as the lower roll 10, its lowerside cooperating with the upper surface of the roll 10 will be moving ina direction opposite to that of the roll 10.

It is obvious that the elongated uniform diameter cylindrical sectionswill be cut into uniform lengths with preservation of the cylindricalform, and with faces at right angles to their longitudinal axes, onlywhen they pass through the cutting zone, with full surface contact inthe groove on one side and with action of the cutting edges their fulllength on the other-side. If any of the sections pass between the rollssuperimposed one.

the spacing of the effective elements of the two respective rollsaforedescribed, this guidance of the sections is effected by therelative peripheral speeds of the two rolls.

The mass of sections fed by gravity from the chute 53, on the topsurface of the lower roll, will naturally be arranged in varyingpositions and will be so conveyed by the rotation of the lower ,rolltoward the angular gap approaching the cutting zone'. The surface of theupper roll travel-' ing in opposing direction and at much greatervelocity than that of the lower roll, sets up a repelling force inexcess of the conveying force of the surface of the lower roll. Henceall bodies being loosely conveyed on the surface of the lower roll, moveinto the repelling influence of the upper roll and will be, therebyejected backward from a point tangent to the pitch line of the upperroll from the point of such contact. However, those sections lyingwholly in the grooves of the lower roll, as well as those lying in fullcontact across the cutting edges of the lower roll and in line with agroove in the upper roll, do not reach this contact with the repellinginfluence of the upper roll until they are sufliciently within theclosing gap to be carried through the cutting zone.

The sections not in proper guidance and so thrown backward remain in thecircuit of conveyance and ejection until they are brought into properposition in relation to the grooves, to be carried into the cuttingzone. The natural tendency of the movement of the cylindrical sections,on the grooved surface described, is to rollinto a groove and thereremain at rest underconveyance of the lower roll. Hence with the area ofconveying surface of the upper roll between the chute and the closurewith the upper roll, there will normally be ample contacts of thesections

